Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin space tourism service has postponed until March 29 a flight initially set for next week, while "Saturday Night Live" comic Pete Davidson will not be a passenger on the launch, the company has said. The company, in a brief notice first posted on Twitter, gave no immediate explanation for the change or Davidson's withdrawal from the manifest of Blue Origin's fourth commercial flight since last summer. Davidson, 28, the boyfriend of reality TV star and socialite Kim Kardashian, had just been officially named on Monday as Blue Origin's "honorary guest" to join five paying customers on the flight initially set for March 23. With "Davidson no longer able to join" the new flight, Blue Origin said it would announce the sixth crew member "in the coming days." ...
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Another milestone in billionaire’s race to open up space tourism Jeff Bezos, the world's richest man, and three crewmates soared high above the Texas desert aboard his space venture Blue Origin's New Shepard launch vehicle on Tuesday and returned to Earth, a historic suborbital flight that helps to inaugurate a new era of private commercial space tourism. The spacecraft ignited its BE-3 engines for a lift-off from Blue Origin's Launch Site One facility about 20 miles (32 km) outside the rural town of Van Horn. There were generally clear skies with a few patchy clouds on a cool morning for the launch. New Shepard rocket and Blue Origin capsule taking off from Texas desert. Image captured from Live webcast/Awara Musafir The 57-year-old American billionaire flew on a voyage lasti...
Read MoreDecades after burnishing his reputation as a wealthy daredevil mogul in a series of boating and hot-air balloon expeditions, Richard Branson is poised to promote his burgeoning astro-tourism venture by launching himself to the final frontier. Branson's Virgin Galactic Holding Inc is due on Sunday to send the company's passenger rocket plane, the VSS Unity, on its first fully crewed test flight to the edge of space, with the British billionaire founder among the six individuals strapping in for the ride. The gleaming white spaceplane will be borne by a twin-fuselage carrier jet dubbed VMS Eve (named for Branson's mother) to an altitude of 50,000 feet, where Unity will be released and soar by rocket power in an almost vertical climb through the outer fringe of Earth's atmosphere. ...
Read MoreA seat on a spaceship ride with billionaire Jeff Bezos went for $28 million (almost 205 crore rupees) during a live auction on Saturday, concluding the month-long bidding process for the sightseeing trip on the Blue Origin’s maiden voyage next month. Within four minutes of the open of Saturday’s live phone auction, bids reached beyond $20 million. The bidding closed seven minutes after the auction began. The identity of the winner - presumably an ultra-wealthy space aficionado - was not immediately disclosed. FILE PHOTO: Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing The July 20 launch of Blue...
Read MoreWant to bid for a seat on a spaceship ride with Jeff Bezos? You’ll need to be quick - and you’ll probably need more than $4 million. Blue Origin is planning a live auction on Saturday to conclude the month-long bidding process for a seat on the sightseeing trip to space next month with the company’s founder, billionaire Amazon.com Inc executive Bezos. The identity of the winner - presumably an ultra-wealthy space aficionado - will not be immediately disclosed. But the July 20 launch of Blue Origin’s New Shepard booster from West Texas would be a landmark moment as U.S. firms strive toward a new era of private commercial space travel. FILE PHOTO: Amazon and Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos addresses the media about the New Shepard rocket booster and Crew Capsule mockup at the 33r...
Read MoreAmazon’s billionaire founder Jeff Bezos said on Monday he and his brother Mark will fly on the first crewed space flight from his rocket company Blue Origin next month. "Ever since I was five years old, I've dreamed of traveling to space. On July 20th, I will take that journey with my brother," Bezos, who is one of the richest people in the world, said in an Instagram post. Bezos, who is due to step down as Amazon's chief on July 5, will join the winner of an auction for a seat on the first space flight from Blue Origin. FILE PHOTO: Founder, Chairman, CEO and President of Amazon Jeff Bezos unveils his space company Blue Origin's space exploration lunar lander rocket called Blue Moon during an unveiling event in Washington, U.S., May 9, 2019. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Bezos, fel...
Read MoreFlying at Mach 3 and reaching more than 55 miles above the Earth Saturday, British billionaire Sir Richard Branson's private spaceship company Virgin Galactic Holdings Inc completed its first manned space flight from its new home port in New Mexico. This is a milestone in Branson's near two-decades effort to create a commercial "spaceline" to take paying customers into outer space. Touted as the first human spaceflight from the state, Branson's SpaceShipTwo craft lifted off in the desert about 45 miles northeast of Las Cruces, New Mexico, about 10:35 a.m. About 50 minutes later, traveling at more than 2,300 miles an hour, it reached a height NASA recognizes as space and attained suborbital flight status. "Welcome to space" the company posted on Twitter. !function...
Read MoreBlue Origin, billionaire Jeff Bezos’ rocket company, disclosed that the current highest bid for a seat on its New Shepard spacecraft was $2.4 million in the ongoing second round of auction. The company said it received more than 5,200 bidders from 136 countries in the first round of auction, the highest bid from which was not disclosed as the round was sealed. FILE PHOTO: A general view of the Blue Origin New Shepard rocket booster at the 33rd Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colorado, United States April 5, 2017. REUTERS/Isaiah J. Downing The second round was kicked off with an initial bid of $1.4 million, according to the Blue Origin website. The process will last until June 10 and conclude in a final phase on June 12, with a live online auction. The rocket company is...
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